God's Controversial Plans for You- WLS Graduation Sermon

God’s “controversial” plans for you

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.

I told the 8th graders in our class last week that I would say some “controversial” things in tonight’s sermon.

One of our last classes together was a lesson on marriage. As part of our discussion, I encouraged them to date, finish high school, get married, wait to enjoy sleeping together until their wedding night, have lots of children, and stay married until God parts them through death.

Following this sequence will statistically bring about “success.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that of the Millennial families who followed the steps in this order, only 3% were in poverty. A staggering 97% were receiving physical blessings above the poverty line.

By contrast, a troubling 53% of those who did not follow the sequence were living in poverty.

God has a plan for your lives. He lays it out clearly in Scripture.

“Marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be kept undefiled” (Hebrews 13:4).

“For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will remain united with his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

“The man who finds a wife finds a good thing, and he obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).

“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).

“What God has joined together, man must not separate” (Matthew 19:6).

God may not always bless us with a marriage or with children. But, if we find a spouse and have children, there is a specific order God wants us to receive those in. This is a sequence, a series of steps, a plan that God has for you. But these are also so-called “controversial” plans. What makes them “controversial”? Our culture. Our friends. Our family. Us. Our sinful natures.

We hear God’s Word, his will, his plans, and we tense up. Our brow furrows and our neck stiffens. We think we know better than God. We are like the Burger King of old where we want to “have it your way.” We don’t like anyone – even God – restricting our fun, limiting our sin, or curbing our sinful desires. We want what we want … and we want it now.

So, we do things out of order and we still expect God to bless us.

But is that how it works in your house? You expect your kids to listen, behave, and do what you tell them. But they stomp and cry. They fight and defy. When they act that way, do you still bless them? Or do you chasten and correct them?

There are some more plans God has for you. The 8th graders and I discussed numerous times in our classes about the roles God gives for men and women in their relationships. God desires men to serve as leaders, providers, and protectors. They are to serve as the Christ-figure for their wife and family. “Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).

God desires women to serve as nurturers, loving and caring for those in her family. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him” (Genesis 2:18). The wife serves as a helper to her husband and a strength for her family, much like God the Father helps and strengthens those within his family. “God is our refuge and strength, a helper who can always be found in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

These are more plans that God has for us, but we often prefer to go along with our culture that tries to imagine how there are no differences between men and women. Our culture then enforces the notion that we can get along just fine on our own without the benefits of the other sex.

The Bible verse the 8th graders chose for their graduation is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This is a verse of comfort to people who had done so many things out of order. The children of Israel had cheated on the Lord and worshiped false gods. They refused to follow God’s will and God’s way. They had perverted themselves with all kinds of physical and spiritual filth. Still, they expected God to bless them simply because they were his chosen children.

God the Father’s children had continually refused to listen and behave, to trust and believe. They stomped and cried. They fought and defied.

God chastised them by allowing them to be carried into captivity by the Babylonian empire.

Jeremiah 29, from where we receive our sermon text, contains a letter the prophet Jeremiah gives to the children of Israel now living in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah encourages them to accept the Lord’s judgment patiently and believe God’s Word that it would be several generations before they would return to their homeland.

He writes, “This is what the Lord says. After seventy years have passed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious word to bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10). God had set the limit of their exile to 70 years. Jeremiah reminded them that they were in exile only because God chose to lead them there. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon served merely as God’s instrument of chastisement. When the Lord chose, he would bring them back.

To those whose vision would be blurry with tears, whose hearts would be torn by grief, whose bodies would be racked with pain, whose hopes would be shattered by disappointment, and whose loss would leave them empty, God promised, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This is God’s promise – not just to those children of Israel – but to all of you – students, graduates, parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, and more. As Christians, we desire to follow our theme this school year and walk in God’s wisdom, to be imitators of God as his dearly loved children, and keep all of his statutes. But we don’t. And we won’t. That’s because we are stubborn in our sin and relentless in our rebellion.

Yet, God gives us another “controversial” plan for us. It isn’t disaster for our sin and rebellion. It’s forgiveness of our sin. It’s redemption from our rebellion. It’s the righteousness of Christ to cover our unrighteousness. This is all foolishness to the world, but it is the wisdom of the Lord. It’s Jesus. Jesus says of himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). This is “controversial” in our culture that despises Christ and his Christianity. Yet, Jesus is what WLS, Shoreland, First Evan, Water of Life and the churches and schools within the Wisconsin Synod are all about.

You may or may not follow God’s sequence for marriage and children. You may or may not fulfill God’s roles for men and women. You may or may not walk in God’s wisdom. You may seem to do things right or do things totally wrong. And, no matter what you do or don’t do, you may face difficulties, suffering, and sorrow in your lives. You may lose your college career, lose a job, lose your health, lose a parent, lose a spouse, or lose a child. And as you struggle, the world may look at you as a loser.

But, you are always a winner. No matter what you face. No matter what you do or don’t do. No matter how stubborn you are in your sin or how relentless you are in your rebellion, God still helps you in times of trouble. Jesus still loves you and gave himself up for you. The Holy Spirit still brings you out of the darkness into the marvelous light of the Lord. As long as you walk in God’s wisdom – which means that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior – you are a winner in God’s eyes. You are a baptized saint. You are a blood-bought child of God. You will graduate from this world to his heavenly Kingdom.

Nothing happens in this world that God does not see. Nothing happens in your life that God does not have a plan for. Everything – even the times of loss – have God’s stamp of approval. Everything has his divine purposes in mind. What are those purposes? His purpose is to prosper you and give you peace. His purpose is to give you hope and a future. Far beyond worldly wealth and earthly prosperity and a future here, our Lord works for your spiritual prosperity, heavenly wealth, and the sure hope of an eternal future in heaven. Everything he plans and does works with this purpose in mind: through faith in the Son, you will one day end up in the Father’s mansions in heaven.

What comfort that is when we are not always able to connect the dots of life. What security that gives us when we cannot see the specifics of the future. What peace that provides when we just don’t know which way to go.

The Lord knows. The Lord cares. The Lord plans. The Lord controls. All of it, with your soul’s best interests in mind.

If you ever have any doubts about that, then just look at Bethlehem’s manger, Calvary’s cross, and Jerusalem’s empty tomb. In these places we see God’s plan to give us peace, hope, and a future.

These are some of God’s “controversial” plans for your life. They are all about Jesus and your relationship with Jesus. Trust them. Love them. Live them. Be blessed by them. … And never, ever graduate from them. Amen.

Be Ready to Confess your Hope

1 Peter 3:15                                The Sixth Sunday of Easter                     May 14 & 21, 2023

Water of Life Lutheran Church             Racine, WI                               Rev. Terry L. Laabs

Prayer:   Lord of the Church, you not only give us the faith to believe in God’s forgiving love, but also the courage to confess our faith to the world around us.  Help us trust the gifts of your Holy Spirit so we can with boldness and confidence stand up for you and tell the world why we do.  Guide us today through your Word of truth into that bold confession, for your holy name’s sake.  Amen.

In today’s lessons, on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, we hear a strong encouragement to live out our Christian confession in word and action, just as many of us promised to do in our confirmation vows however many years ago. That’s no coincidence.  God doesn’t prepare us for things he knows we’ll never need to do.  If God has given us the faith to believe in and confess his powerful, rescuing love for us, he will also put us into situations where we will be called on to stand up for that faith.

That truth seems especially clear in our second lesson for today, as St. Peter writes to Christians facing persecution and danger on account of their faith in Jesus.  He writes to encourage them to hold firm to their Christian confession, even if it should prove painful in their present human circumstances. And the reason why he wants them to stand firm in their confession is because in this way they would bring glory to their Lord Jesus Christ and lead others to see his greatness.  St. Peter in this lesson encourages all of us Christians to prepare ourselves to tell others why we believe in Jesus.  He says to us:

Be Ready to Confess your Hope

How does Peter say we can do that? 

1.  First confess your sins

2.  Then confess your faith in Jesus

3.  In that way you will prepare to confess your hope

1.  First confess your sins

St. Peter understands that feeling hopeful about the future isn’t something that comes natural for us, let alone talking about the hope we have in Jesus.  Being happy and positive and hopeful is a gift.  Naturally, we’re much more likely to whine and moan, to complain about what’s going on in our lives now and to expect that it’ll only get worse in the future.  One thing you have to give to pessimists: they’re realistic about seeing the effects of sin in our lives.

Peter reminds us here that apart from Christ we would have no hope for the future.  Each of us was born into this world sinful and dirty and evil.  We may not have looked that way at first; we were no doubt new little bundles of joy all cute and cuddly.  In the first days—perhaps weeks—of our lives, it seemed we could do no wrong.  But eventually the sinful heart in us began to show.  I’ve never yet met parents who have worked hard to teach their little ones to be selfish.  We try to teach our kids just the opposite. Yet every child is hard-wired for selfishness.  Every toddler knows the concept of “mine,” and soon learns to fight to keep others away from what is “mine.”  Very early in our lives it becomes clear that, if we hope to have a future relationship with a Holy God, we need to be washed clean of our selfishness and sin.

That’s why Jesus gave us Holy Baptism.  The water of Baptism isn’t there to wash away dirt from our bodies but rather to purge away sinful guilt from our consciences. Through the Gospel in the spoken Word and the Sacraments God is happy to offer us forgiveness of sins, but only if we admit we need it.  God freely offers the cure if only we admit we’re sick and desperately need his help.  That’s why the first part of confessing our hope in Christ is confessing our sin and asking for His forgiveness.

To a world of sinners feeling the weight of their sins Jesus came to take our place.  He joined us as a human being, living under the same laws of God we struggle with on a daily basis.  Only Jesus never gave in to selfishness and sin.  He never once let what he wanted overwhelm what God wanted him to do.  And then he took his perfect, sinless human life and laid it on the line for us.  He stepped into God’s courtroom as our defense attorney and offered to take the punishment each of us had coming.  He served our sentence by letting the insults and the blows and the torture fall on him, so it didn’t have to fall on us.  He let himself be sentenced to death, to give us a shot at life.

St. Peter put it this way, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the flesh but made alive [three days later] in the spirit, in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago.”  St. Peter there is referring to that event we call Christ’s descent into hell, when Jesus early on Easter morning went with his resurrected body to make a victory proclamation in Satan’s own back yard, proving that death couldn’t hold him.  There is resurrection symbolism in the gift of Baptism Jesus gave us to call us to faith in his shed blood.  “Baptism now saves you,” says the Apostle Peter—”not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand.”  When you and I were baptized, we were given the faith to believe in Jesus as our Savior from sin.  So that throughout our lives we could every day confess not only our sins but also our faith in the blood of Jesus to freely forgive those sins and, because of his resurrection from the dead, make us sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.  The water of baptism only seals that covenant.

3. Prepare to confess your hope

In light of the work of Christ and the power of Holy Baptism, St. Peter can encourage every Christian to “set apart Christ as Lord” in our hearts.  What does it mean to “set apart Christ in our hearts”?  I think it means what Jesus meant when he said, “My sheep listen to my voice.”  When we set apart a place in our hearts only for Jesus, we are committing ourselves to listen to his voice and set that voice apart, above all the other competing voices we hear in this sinful world.  After we have set apart a place in our heart for Jesus, St. Peter encourages us to be ready to tell people why.  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  The only way we’ll ever be ready to confess our hope in Jesus is if we have been sitting down with him regularly to hear the clear voice of his Gospel teaching, and to receive his gifts of bread and wine, of his own body and blood, to assure us our sins no longer keep us from God.

The best way to be ready to confess our hope in Jesus Christ is to walk with him and listen to his Word on a regular basis.  That means to gather each week with God’s people in his house for feeding and leading in Word and sacrament, and to read and study the Bible privately and with others, at home and at church.  Because that’s where Jesus’ sheep listen to his voice.  That’s where our hope is strengthened and we are prepared to confess that hope.

You know, once we have made the commitment to listen to Jesus’ voice above all the other noise in this world, and to follow where he leads us, we’ll find ourselves standing alone often enough, apart from the crowd.  We won’t easily be able to take part in things that are out of sync with Christ’s plan for our lives, even if it’s what “everybody else is doing.”  At that point, perhaps the most difficult part of being ready to confess your hope in Jesus is being able to explain to the people around you why you do the things you do, why you don’t do the things you don’t do, and why you believe the things you believe.  But that’s also the key opportunity for God’s kingdom to advance, as his people share with others why God’s way—the way of forgiveness and faith—is also the way of peace and freedom and happiness and fulfillment and everlasting joy.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  That’s St. Peter’s inspired advice to Christians.  When people notice that you’re not taking part in what everybody else is doing, when they see you handle the trials and difficulties of life with calm and confident trust that God is good and will care for his people no matter what—that’s when you need to be ready to explain yourself.  That’s when you have a chance to say, Look, it’s not me. It’s not that I’m so strong or so calm and collected, or that I’m so good.  It’s the God I serve, the God who accepts me for what I am.  He forgives my shortcomings and is hard at work re-making me in the perfect image of his Son Jesus.  That’s why I follow his will.  And you know what?  My God wants to do that for you, too.  That’s all it takes for us to share the reason for our hope in Christ.  And that small confession, that simple testimony is all the Holy Spirit needs to begin his saving work on yet another sinful heart.

As we think about St. Peter’s encouragement to be ready to confess our hope in Jesus,  let us give thanks to God for the faith he has given us. Let us give thanks that God has already led many of us to “set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts,” and to listen every day and every week to his voice leading us. And let us pray that we will be ready to confess our hope in Jesus every day of our lives, always ready to share with the people around us the reason for our hope.  It’s the forgiveness we have through the shed blood of Christ.  It’s the washing away of our sins we received in Holy Baptism.  It’s the body and blood of Jesus we receive again and again at God’s altar to remind us of Christ’s gifts to us.  That’s why we have sure and certain hope—because of Christ.  May he make you ready to confess that hope every day.  Amen.

The Protection Provided By Prayer

John 17:1-11a After Jesus had spoken these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you. 2For you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. 4I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5Now, Father, glorify me at your own side with the glory I had at your side before the world existed.

6“I revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have held on to your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me, and they received them. They learned the truth that I came from you. They believed that you sent me.

9“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. And I am glorified in them. 11I am no longer going to be in the world, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.

If you are insulted in connection with the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (1 Peter 4:14). Amen.

“Fight the Good Fight.” “Jesus Christ, My Sure Defense.” “Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You.” “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” Those are four of the hymns we are singing today. Do you notice the common theme with these hymns?

They all share the imagery of going into battle. One of the key weapons Jesus gives us when we enter the battlefield is the weapon of prayer.

What is prayer? Prayer is conversing with your Creator. It is pouring out your heart to your Best Friend, Jesus. It is asking for comfort from the Comforter of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer can be giving God the adoration he deserves. It can be confessing your sins and baring your soul. It will then be followed by going into the Scripture to hear your Savior’s words of absolution. It will include thanksgiving for all the physical and spiritual gifts the Triune God has given you. It will include petitions for your church, school, high school, synod, pastor, teachers, family, health, income, nation, and more.

But, honestly, how often do you take up the weapon of prayer? How often do you avail yourself of God’s almighty power that is yours for the asking in prayer? Do you kneel beside your bed in the morning to ask for God’s blessing on your day? Do you pray with and for your children that God would send his angels to protect them and keep temptations away from them? Do you ask that your words will match God’s will and words throughout the day? Do you say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for narrowly missing an accident on the freeway and a brief prayer of safety for those injured in the accident?

German theologian Johann Gerhardt had these wise words about prayer: “The benefit of prayer is so great that it cannot be expressed! Prayer is the dove which, when sent out, returns again, bringing with it the olive leave, namely peace of heart. Prayer is the golden chain which God holds fast and lets not go until he blesses. Prayer is Moses’ rod, which brings forth the water of consolation out of the rock of salvation. Prayer is Samson’s jawbone, which smites down our enemies. Prayer is David’s harp, before which the evil spirit flies. Prayer is the key to heaven’s treasures.”

Prayer is a powerful weapon in our battle against Satan. There is protection provided by prayer.

But why do we need this protection? Jesus Christ waged war against Satan with his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. Jesus Christ defeated the evil angel of the Devil. Christ has now established his dominion over all things.

Yet, though the war is over, the battle rages on. The Great Dragon of Satan has been hurled down from heaven. He has turned his rage against the earth. And in particular, you!

Why you? Because you have been set free. You are a baptized child of God. Once you were in darkness, but now you are in the Light of Christ. Once you were not a people, but now you are a people who are holy and blameless in God’s sight. Once you belonged to Satan. But now you belong to the Lord.

You are different. You are weird. You are in the world, but not of the world. You now have a Christian, spiritual worldview instead of an anti-Christian, purely political worldview. You are intent on actively influencing the culture instead of passively allowing the culture to influence you. You hear all the news, but you only believe God’s Truth. You are strangers here and citizens of heaven.

And Satan hates you for all of it!

Satan is going to come at you! He’s going to come at you hard! So, prepare yourself with prayer.

One of the ways Native Americans prepared their young braves for battle was on the night of a boy’s thirteenth birthday, after learning hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was put to one final test. He was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of the family and the tribe. But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken several miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of a thick woods … and he was terrified! Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. After what seemed like an eternity, dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long.

You may not be able to see your heavenly Father protecting you, but he is with you. Yes, as a Christian, you are a foreigner living in enemy territory. Satan will do everything he can to bring you down. But God guarantees that he will protect you from all the attacks of Satan.

Jesus teaches you to pray for God’s providence and protection in prayer. On Thursday night of Holy Week, in the Upper Room with his disciples, Jesus is also praying for your protection.

Jesus prayed “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you. For you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me at your own side with the glory I had at your side before the world existed.” Jesus revealed his greatest glory through his greatest humility – his death on the cross. There, Jesus also finished the work his Father had given him to do.

What was that work? The battle for your eternal freedom was not fought against flesh and blood with swords and bullets, but “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12).

When Jesus was conceived, the Prince of Darkness coiled for attack. When Jesus was baptized, legions of demons assembled and were sent out. When temptation failed to snare the Son of God, the devil desired to attack the disciples, to sift them like wheat. Whenever Jesus came into town, the demons fell at his feet. Wherever Jesus preached, the demons fled in terror, their ears pierced by the power of the One who brought all things into being, the One who undoes the work of Satan and makes all things new.

Before Jesus goes into battle against the forces of darkness, he prays. He doesn’t pray for himself. He prays for Peter, Thomas, and Andrew. He prays for all his followers. He prays for you.

Jesus prays for you because he has left you – left you in this world but not as part of this world. “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, because they are yours. All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. And I am glorified in them. I am no longer going to be in the world, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.”

Jesus is leaving. He is leaving his followers behind. We are in this world, but Jesus prays for us to be different from the world. Basically, Jesus is praying that the Father makes us “weird.”

We are seen as “weird” in our world. Weird for wanting to go to church to worship. Weird for giving money to support ministry work. Weird for waiting to have sex until marriage. Weird for not watching certain shows or talking certain ways. Weird for spending so much time in prayer.

Since we are so weird, people will notice. We are Christ’s soldiers living in Enemy territory. We live and eat and drink and speak and act differently from those who belong to the Enemy. We are trying to win them over to our side, to Christ’s side. Why has Jesus left us in this spiritually hostile world? He doesn’t pray to the heavenly Father that he take us out of the world. “I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One” (John 17:15).

Jesus has left you here for a distinct mission. Not a super-secret mission. But a well-publicized and visible mission. “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you. For you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me at your own side with the glory I had at your side before the world existed.”

Your mission is to receive and believe in the eternal life Jesus has won for you. Your mission is to believe in God’s words and then share those words. Jesus prayed, “I revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have held on to your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me, and they received them. They learned the truth that I came from you. They believed that you sent me.”

When we baptize our children, we place the sign of the cross on their foreheads, marking them as redeemed and reclaimed children of God. Martin Luther teaches us to begin and end each day in prayer – saying Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed, and also making the sign of the cross over our head and heart.

Some parents make the sign of the cross over their children as the last thing they do at night. It is a prayer for safety, a prayer marking that child belongs to Jesus, so the devil can just go away.

One family has the custom of making the sign of the cross on the forehead of their children when they leave the house. One day, their teenage son was in a rush to leave for school, ran up to his dad and said, “Do me quick and then I can go!”

The son came to expect prayer and wanted it for his busy day.

If we are serious about protecting ourselves and our children, let us begin and end each day with prayer. Let us pray continually throughout the day. Always praying with confidence that Jesus also prayed and continues to pray for us, too. This the protection provided in prayer. Amen.

If you suffer for being a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God in connection with this name. (1 Peter 4:16). Amen.

Sermon 4-30-2023

Sermon WoL                                    1 Peter 2:19-25                                04-30-2023

Intro:  Suffering screams aloud the biggest question of faith – WHY?  While suffering was never God’s planned mission, he never-the-less gives it his permission – as in He allows it to take place. Back in 1940, C.S Lewis wrote a very challenging book called ‘The problem of pain’, in which he wrote ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’  As he did with Jesus so he may do with us – draw attention to the sufferer and his message.

God Calls Us into Christ’s Suffering

1.  It was an Undeserved Suffering.

1.1  Unjust suffering mirrors the pathway and purpose of Christ.  (v. 19) ILL.- Adoniram Judson, the renowned missionary to Burma, endured untold hardships trying to reach the lost for Christ. For 7 heartbreaking years he suffered hunger and privation. During this time he was thrown into Ava Prison, and for 17 months was subjected to almost incredible mistreatment. As a result, for the rest of his life he carried the ugly marks made by the chains and iron shackles which had cruelly bound him.  Undaunted, upon his release he asked for permission to enter another province where he might resume preaching the Gospel.  The godless ruler indignantly denied his request, saying, “My people are not fools enough to listen to anything a missionary might SAY, but I fear they might be impressed by your SCARS and turn to your religion!” That is true, Christ-like suffering! And it’s something that we American Christians know nothing about! We have definitely not suffered for Christ while witnessing for Him.  Perhaps if we’d do more, preach more, witness more, we’d suffer more for His sake!  Galatians 6:17 "For I carry on my body the scars of the whippings and wounds from Jesus’ enemies that mark me as His slave." The finest marks anyone can carry on their body are the marks of Jesus. Unjust suffering is Christ-like.

ILL.- Once when Bob Hope received a major award he responded, "I don’t deserve this, but then I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either."

1.2  He was sinless in his life and thoughts.  (v. 21b-22)

For us, he suffered – our Substitute  What this verse says is that two things--not just one thing, but two things--were happening when Jesus suffered. One is found in the words, "Christ suffered FOR YOU." When Christ suffered--more than any of us have suffered--he was standing in your place. The word "for" (huper) is a simple word with profound meaning when used with the death of Christ. It proclaims the most wonderful truth known to man. Note this striking truth: it does not mean that Christ died only as an example for us, showing us how we should be willing to die for the truth or for some great cause. What it means is that Christ died in our place, in our stead, in our room, as our substitute. This meaning is unquestionably clear.  The idea of sacrifice to the Jewish and pagan mind of that day was the idea of a life given in another’s place. It was a substitutionary sacrifice. The idea of sacrifice is often in the very context of the words, "Christ gave Himself for us" (Ephes. 5:2). 

He was bearing your sins so that your condemnation became his and he took it away from you. The sufferings of your life in Christ are NOT condemnation for sin, they are discipline for holiness (1 Peter 1:6-7; Hebrews 12:3-11). The sufferings of Christians are not divine condemnation. That is precisely what Christ bore "for us" (1 Peter 2:24; Gal. 3:13). And that's why our sufferings come just as often from doing what's right as from doing what's wrong. It is not divine condemnation; it is divine CALLING!

For us, he suffered – our Example.  = Note the word example. Christ has left us an "example" (hupogrammon). The word means the pattern of some picture or letter that a teacher gives to the pupil. The pattern is to be copied or reproduced. The idea is that an exact copy is to be made; every detail of the pattern is to be reproduced. The exhortation is that we are to be an exact copy of Christ; we are to follow the pattern of Christ in every detail.
epakolouthçsçte = The word "follow"is the picture of a guide leading us along a most difficult and rocky path, so difficult that we must actually put our feet in his footprints. We are to follow Christ step by step, moment by moment, and day by day. The whole of this letter from Peter is addressed to a church, which is being subjected to a constant pattern of suffering, injustice and social exclusion. Yet this whole letter is encouraging the church to submit, to be living sacrifices, live humbly and live for the purposes of God. Rejoice that you participate in sufferings and be commendable to bear the pain of unjust sufferings.

Has there ever been a time when this is further from the way of the world? A world when we are expected to put rights of the individual before duty, or service to others. A world where people chase ambulances to ensure accident victims claim large compensations. A world where doctors live in the threat of being sued as they try to heal and save lives. A world where the church is often seen as an irrelevant, hypocritical, homophobic institution.

Peter invites us to live under the pain of unjust suffering for one reason. It is the way of God.  ‘To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.’  God IS involved in our suffering.

1.3  He did not sin in his words. (v. 22b)

App:  The influence of Christ’s life on us means that we will not shirk the responsibility to speak the truth – even if it draws us into the line of fire.  We may have to take “suffering” as a part of the testimony, but see how it leads us alongside him? Believers are called to suffer for Christ. What does this mean?

= Any person who follows Christ—who lives a pure and righteous life—is going to be rejected by the world. The world wants little to do with these. People want to live like they want and to do their own thing. Therefore, they ridicule, mock, ignore, abuse, bypass, ignore, and persecute anyone who lives a strict life of purity and righteousness.

= Any person who lives a self-denying life—who sacrifices all he is and has to meet the needs of a lost and dying world—is going to be rejected by the world. People are not willing to live unselfish and sacrificial lives to meet the needs of the poor, starving, diseased, and lost masses of the world. People want more and more comfort and recognition, possessions and pleasure, money and property. Therefore, they want little to do with a person who sacrifices and proclaims a message of sacrifice.

Remember the point: Christ has given us a great call—to follow Him and to suffer for Him and His cause even as He suffered for us. What is His cause? To love God supremely by living a holy life and to love the lost and dying of the world by meeting their desperate needs.

2.  It was a Unique Suffering

2.1  Calm response in the face of cruelty proves his love.  (v. 23a)

First, He was reviled, but He did not rail back at the attackers. The picture is that He was cursed, blasphemed, ridiculed, mocked, and railed at; but He bore it all willingly and voluntarily. He did not have to bear it. He was the Son of God, and He could have stopped everyone in their tracks. But He had come to save them, not to condemn them.

2.2  Compassionate comprehension of sin’s effect confirms his complete control. (23b)  Second, He suffered, was abused, beaten, pushed around, and crowned with a crown of thorns; but He suffered it willingly. He did not even threaten the unbelievers and persecutors.   Jesus had a choice to make, as he turned his face towards Jerusalem and chose to suffer unto death on the cross at Calvary.  Peter had a choice to make, as he followed in the footsteps of Jesus and chose the path of suffering, right up until he died, reputedly also on a cross.   I am so conscious that there is so much more that could be said about suffering, and from those that are so better qualified than I to talk about it.

2.3  Committed steps led him to the cross. (v. 23c)  Third, He committed Himself to God knowing that God would vindicate Him. He knew that God judges righteously and fairly; therefore, He committed His life into the hands of God. The word "committed" (paredidou) means to hand over; to deliver into the hands of. Jesus Christ handed over His life to God; He delivered His life into the hands and keeping of God. Again, He did not have to suffer death, for He had the power to stop it all. But He had come to save men; therefore he willingly suffered, committing His death and cause into the hands of God. He knew that God would raise Him up and prove His claim to be the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Perhaps this insight is the most important for us to grasp hold of. John Stott, once said "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross" God is not a god who is immune from suffering. Through the cross, Jesus is reconciling the world to himself.

 App:  Only one human being could carry the cross with this care and concern.  He was not fighting a cause, he was conquering sin like a king.   Jesus suffered in all the ways we suffer. He doesn’t just know about suffering – in modern street-language ‘Jesus does suffering.’   Knowing that God is there with us in suffering helps. If you like, in the words of the theologian, Moltmann, "it removes the suffering in suffering." We are not alone in pain.

Those who nailed Jesus to the cross intended it for evil – to take a life; but God intended it for good – the saving of many lives. God IS involved in our suffering. Do we believe that? So we too are called to embrace suffering in the way that Jesus did. Including the most difficult form of suffering – that which is unjust, not fair and wrong.

But like the art of cross carrying, Peter is not just talking about normal suffering here (if there is such a thing), or suffering in which we have to endure because there is no way out of it. He is actually inviting us to take a positive step by accepting unjust suffering, presumably a type of suffering where we can decide not to accept it, or to complain about it, or be resentful concerning it.  I wonder in what circumstances today I might choose to suffer, or endure, for doing good?

3.  It was an Unselfish Suffering

3.1  Jesus didn’t seek to spare his own life, but ours.  (v. 24) 

ILL.- Someone asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why not?" he replied. "They’re the only ones who can take it."  Romans 8:18 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." 2Cor. 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory thatfar outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 1 Cor. 2:9 "However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

3.2  Jesus has become our security.  (v. 25)

So this is our calling, Peter says. Not to hurt back, not to plan to hurt back. And not to seethe with bitterness because you're not allowed to hurt back. So you can see this is not a simple rule to keep. This is a miracle to be experienced. It's a grace to be received. And it is the only way that many marriages can survive and flourish. Spouses can hurt each other worse than anybody else. And how many are consumed day and night with indignation and "justified" self-pity and numbing frustration that they are doing RIGHT and all they get is pain.

So where does this miracle come from? The overarching answer is found in verse 19: For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. The miracle happens--the grace comes--when we are conscious of God. It comes by reckoning with God. Including God in the equation of your relationship. What are we to think when we think of God in such situations of unjust hurt? The answer is given in verse 23: he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

That is, he handed over to God the whole situation including himself and those abusing him and the hurt done and all the factors that made it a horrendous outrage of injustice that the most innocent man who ever lived should suffer so much. He trusted it all into God's hands as the one who would settle the matter justly someday. He said, "I will not carry the burden of revenge, I will not carry the burden of sorting out motives, I will not carry the burden of self-pity; I will not carry the burden of bitterness; I will hand all that over to God who will settle it all in a perfectly just way and I will pray, "Father, forgive them they don't know what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Conclusion:  God uses suffering to draw us to Christ, and then to lend authority and authenticity to our “faith story.”  Through suffering he uses us for his good purposes.

Do you believe, do you trust, that God sees every wrong done to you, that he knows every hurt, that he assesses motives and circumstances with perfect accuracy, that he is impeccably righteous and takes no bribes, and that he will settle all accounts with perfect justice. This is what it means to be "conscious of God" in the midst of unjust pain. If you believe this--if God is this real to you--then you will hand it over to God, and though nobody in the world may understand where your peace and joy and freedom to love is coming from, you know. The answer is God. And sooner or later they will know.

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

John 14:1-4 “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. 4You know where I am going, and you know the way.”

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Amen. (1 Peter 2:9)

Jesus tells us, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” I asked our homebound members what troubles them. Here are some of the things they listed. They are lonely, often with no family around. They have health problems – they are hard of hearing, have difficulty breathing, are afraid of going senile, or are living with constant pain.

They have to get used to slowing down; not being able to do much anymore; not being able to go to church; and not being able to leave the house without help.

They are troubled that their children aren’t believers and haven’t baptized their grandchildren.

They miss their house. They miss their spouse. And one that hit home to me – one homebound member said she misses riding her bike.

Our older saints definitely have troubles. I also asked our younger saints - our 8th grade Catechism students - what troubles them. Here are some of the serious and not so serious things they listed.

They answered: My schedule. Missing the bus. Struggles with my family. When the bathroom at home is full.

What my peers think of me. Feeling like I don’t fit in. If I leave the faith someday. Standing by tall people.

Bad grades. Not learning important stuff in school like how to pay taxes. Not being able to find a job after school. People. Mr. M. (That’s their 8th grade teacher.)

My grandma, who isn’t talking to me. Losing a loved one. Not knowing what my future holds. Moving. Waking up early just to come to school. Anxiety. Pastor Zarling being short.

Jesus knows his disciples of all ages will have troubles. You may share some of the same troubles as the teenagers or the senior citizens. Or you may have your own unique troubles that are somewhere in between those two age groups. Whatever your troubles are, Jesus is teaching us not to allow our troubles to trouble our hearts.

The setting of our sermon text is Thursday evening. Jesus has entered Jerusalem with a Palm Sunday procession. On Monday, Jesus chased the money changers, sacrificial animals, and animal merchants out of the temple courtyard. Then Monday and Tuesday, Jesus taught in the recently vacated temple courtyard. It seems that Jesus took Wednesday off.

On Thursday evening, Jesus is in the Upper Room with his disciples. He washes their feet. The Passover Meal is just about ready to be eaten. But before they sit down to eat, Jesus teaches his disciples covering five chapters in John’s Gospel. Part of that teaching are these words: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. You know where I am going, and you know the way.”

Jesus is like a young mother dropping off her four-year-old daughter for the first day of Preschool. The little girl is apprehensive, scared, clingy. She has tears welling up in her eyes.

Mom is comforting her daughter by showing her how nice the Preschool teacher is, all her friends she knows from church who are in her class, and all the toys she gets to play with during the day. Mom reassures her daughter that she’ll be back at the end of the day to pick her up and bring her home.

Jesus is also like an older dad who is saying goodbye to his sixteen-year-old son. The dad is in the Marines and is going to war. He’s telling his son that he’s going to be the man of the house now. The son is trying to man up, but he’s still apprehensive, scared, clingy. He has tears welling up in his eyes. The Dad reassures his son that when the war is won, he’ll be home.

Jesus is reassuring his disciples - his spiritual children – that he is going away for a while. He is about to die, to leave this world, and go to his Father in heaven. As he speaks, Judas is on his way to get the temple guard to arrest Jesus. By Friday evening, the disciples will be terrified and grieving, thinking Jesus is gone forever.

Jesus comforts their troubled hearts by reminding them that though he is going away, he’ll come back on the Last Day to take them home with him.

Jesus is reminding his disciples – his spiritual children – that he is going off to war. He is going into battle against the ancient serpent of the Devil. He is waging war on sin. It will be a fight to the death – his death. He will be struck in his heel by the serpent’s fangs. He will have the sins of humanity on his godly shoulders. He will fight death … and die. He will look like a criminal. He will appear like a victim. He will seem like a loser.

But looks are deceiving. Through his death, Jesus defeats death. By allowing himself to be bitten by the serpent, he will crush the serpent’s head. By allowing sin to kill him, he will pay for humanity’s sins, once and for all. He is not a criminal. He is the Holy One of God. He is not a victim. He is the Victor. He is not a loser. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, like any loving parent, Jesus reassures his apprehensive, clingy children. He speaks to them as simply as you speak to a child. “I am going away, but don’t be afraid,” he says. “Trust in God. Trust also in me. I am going to get things ready for you. Then I will be back. You will be with me again.”

The disciples didn’t get it. They are like a little child being apart from her parents; like a teenager separated by war from his father; like us during troubling times. But during the terrifying days to come, they would have the memory of Jesus’ words to comfort them. We, too, have Jesus’ words to comfort us. Jesus has promised his troubled disciples of all ages that he will come back. And we know that Jesus always keeps his promises.

We are troubled, present-day disciples. Sometimes, other people bring trouble upon us. Sometimes, we bring trouble upon ourselves. The rest of the time, the trouble is because we are sinful people living in a sinful world.

And when trouble comes – whether the trouble finds us or we find the trouble – what happens to our hearts? Our hearts are anxious, worried, sad, angry, and confused. … Our hearts are troubled.

Jesus speaks to his troubled disciples of all ages, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” Jesus tells us to stop being troubled. The Greek word for “trouble” has the picture of water that is churning or seething, as in a rough surf on Lake Michigan. The news of the betrayal, denial, and departure of Jesus has caused the disciples’ hearts to churn with fear and apprehension.

When our hearts are churning with fear and apprehension. Jesus tells us, “Stop letting your hearts be churned up.”

Jesus doesn’t simply pat his disciples on the head and say, “There, there, everything will be all right.” He tells why they have no reason to be troubled. He tells us to keep doing what we are doing. “Keep believing in God. Keep believing in me.”

What do we do when trouble comes on us? We pray for Jesus to remove our troubles. Yet, Scripture says that God uses trouble so he can comfort us and we can then comfort others in their trouble (2 Corinthians 1:3,4), so God can refine and purify us with troubles (Isaiah 48:10), so he can teach us patience and train us in perseverance (Romans 5:3-5), and so we are prepared for eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Jesus doesn’t promise to remove our troubles. Instead, he promises to give us forgiveness to give to those who have brought trouble on us. He promises to give us forgiveness to apply to ourselves and offer to others that we have brought trouble upon.

Jesus doesn’t promise to remove our troubles from us. Rather, he promises to remove our troubles eventually and eternally in heaven. “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.”

What Jesus means is, “I’m going to prepare a place for you … tonight and tomorrow.” Through Jesus’ betrayal, denial, conviction and crucifixion, Jesus prepared a room for all those in that upper room and all of you in your living rooms. He prepared a place for you through his innocent suffering and substitutionary death. Jesus prepared a place for you by being shut into the enclosed room of the tomb for three days and then bursting forth on Easter dawn. He prepared a room for you through his ascension to his Father’s right hand in heaven.

Whether Jesus is preparing a “room” for you like in the NIV or a whole “mansion” like in the EHV, the Greek word means “a permanent home.” You have a place of permanence waiting for you after the shifting and changing of earthly life.

What troubles you? Is it aches and pains? Jesus promises that one day you will have an imperishable, glorious, spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:43, 44).

Is it loneliness or fear of what your peers think of you? Jesus brings us into a family of baptized believers who will strengthen and encourage you.

Is it heart-breaking news in our world or the heartaches within your own home? Is it past mistakes that haunt you or present financial struggles that scare you or future health problems that concern you?

Whatever it is, Jesus promises that, although, we cannot follow where he has gone, he has not abandoned us. He will come again to take us to be with him. Peter, the one who had to keep saying something that Thursday evening, says something about this eventual and eternal comfort. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3,4).

Pray that Jesus calms your trouble heart. Jesus may or may not calm your troubled heart by removing your troubles. But he does promise that he will remove you from your troubles. So, believe that, and do not let your heart be troubled. Amen.

At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy. Amen. (1 Peter 2:10)

The Road of Hope

Luke 24:13-35 13Now, on that same day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about all of these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing this, Jesus himself approached and began to walk along with them. 16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” Saddened, they stopped.

18One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19“What things?” he asked them.

They replied, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be condemned to death. And they crucified him. 21But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. Not only that, but besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22Also some women of our group amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning. 23When they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb. They found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

25He said to them, “How foolish you are and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter his glory?” 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28As they approached the village where they were going, he acted as if he were going to travel farther. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, since it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.”

So he went in to stay with them. 30When he reclined at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and began giving it to them. 31Suddenly their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. Then he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us along the road and while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?” 33They got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those who were with them assembled together. 34They were saying, “The Lord really has been raised! He has appeared to Simon.” 35They themselves described what had happened along the road, and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.

You were redeemed from your empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, not with things that pass away, such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:18, 19) Amen.

Ms. Jones was a teacher who was working in the children’s hospital. One day, she was asked to visit a boy named Charlie who was in a burn unit. Charlie’s school teacher told her, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework, so he doesn’t fall too far behind the others.”

Ms. Jones went to the Charlie’s room in the hospital. He was in a clean room. He was wrapped in bandages and in incredible pain. As gently as she could, Ms. Jones introduced herself and the purpose of her visit this way: “I’m the hospital teacher. Your teacher at school asked me to help you with your nouns and adverbs.”

The next day a nurse asked Ms. Jones, “What did you do to Charlie?” Ms. Jones had no idea what she was talking about. The nurse continued, “We were worried about Charlie. But ever since you visited him yesterday, his entire outlook has changed. For the first time since he came here, he’s fighting. He’s responding. He’s got a new lease on life.”

What had happened? Charlie eventually admitted to his parents that he had given up. He felt hopeless and helpless. But when he thought about the teacher who had come to see him, he realized the school wouldn’t waste its time and money by sending someone to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy.

Pretty perceptive, don’t you think?

Two disciples are walking down the dusty road to the village of Emmaus, a 7-mile journey from Jerusalem. Their talk concerns the crucified Jesus. They have a dirge-like pace to their feet. Their attitude is like they’ve just come from a funeral – and in essence, they have – Jesus’ funeral.

They walk as if they’ve lost all hope.

The disciples had staked their lives on this Jesus from Nazareth. Everything they had. They thought he was the One. A prophet powerful in word and deed. He made blind men see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the demon-possessed to be dispossessed. He even raised the dead. They hoped he was the Messiah, the promised One who would redeem Israel. And then in one weekend their hopes and their world came crashing down around them. Jesus was dead, buried, and now nowhere to be seen. The rumor by the women of a resurrection didn’t provide any comfort. The words of Peter and John about the empty tomb were too confusing.

It all seemed so hopeless.

These two disciples were hoping for a golden throne. Jesus gave them a bloody cross. They were hoping for honor. Jesus bowed his thorn-crowned head in humility. They were hoping for glorious triumph. Jesus gave them a dark tomb. They were hoping for the answers to all their prayers. But they were praying for the wrong results. They were praying for their kingdom to come, but Jesus suffered, died, and was laid in the grave so his Kingdom would come.

How foolish they were, and how slow of heart to believe.

Their walk is slow, but their questions come quickly. “How could Judas do that?” “Why wasn’t Peter stronger?” “Why did the high priest hate Jesus so much?” “Why couldn’t Pontius Pilate have been more forceful?” “How could Jesus let this happen to himself?” “What do we do now?”

Just then a stranger comes up from behind and says, “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help overhearing you. Who are you discussing?” They stop and turn. Other travelers make their way around them as the three stand in silence. Finally, the one named Cleopas asks, “Where have you been the last few days? Haven’t you heard about Jesus of Nazareth?” And he continues to tell what happened.

This is a fascinating scene – two sincere disciples telling how the last nail was driven into Israel’s coffin. God, in disguise, listens patiently, his wounded hands buried deeply in his robe. He must have been touched by the faithfulness of this pair of disciples. Yet he must also have been a bit hurt. He had just gone to hell and back to give heaven to earth, and these two were worried about the political situation in Israel.

“But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

But we had hoped. … How often have you heard a phrase like that?

“We’re hoping to get pregnant soon.”

“I was hoping I’d feel better by now.”

“I’m hoping to get back to work.”

“I hope he asks me to the prom.”

“We had hoped the chemo would get all of the tumor.”

“We were hoping to go on vacation, but we can’t afford it now.”

“We were hoping Mom would come home from the hospital, but God had other plans.”

Words painted gray with disappointment. What we wanted didn’t come. What came, we didn’t want. The result? Shattered hope. Disappointment. Despair. The foundation of our world trembles. When hopes are crushed, the pilot light goes out in our eyes. There is no more deadening feeling than to feel hopeless.

We trudge down the long road to Emmaus dragging our sandals in the dust, heads down, shoulders stooped in defeat. We’re wondering what we did to deserve such a plight. “What kind of God would let me down like this? I had hoped it would be better than this.” Our eyes are so tear-filled and our perspective so limited that God could be the fellow walking next to us and we wouldn’t know it.

You see, the problem with our two heavy-hearted friends was not a lack of faith, but a lack of vision. It wasn’t a lack of hope, but a hope in the wrong destination.

Those two disciples, walking to Emmaus that Easter night, had one thing on their minds – the cross. They looked at what happened and compared that to what they had been hoping for, and they came to this conclusion – the cross ruined everything! If it hadn’t been for the cross, things would have been great.

We’re not much different than those weak and heavy-laden travelers, are we? We do things out of order and wonder why we struggle in our marriage. We piously ask for God’s will to be done and then have the audacity to pout when things go according to God’s will and not ours. We take all week off from God and then wonder why our faith is so weak. We cut ourselves off from God’s Word and Sacrament, and then we wonder why our children misbehave and disbelieve the way they do.

We want to be followers of Christ, but without the cross. We want to be faithful to Christ, as long as we don’t have to suffer. We want the glory, without the humility. We want the blessings without the burdens. Everything would be great … if God would just remove those bothersome crosses.

But God won’t do that. He simply loves you too much to pamper your sin, indulge your idolatry, and raise spoiled children. And so, Jesus came to those two doubting and disappointed disciples and showed them how the cross was not a surprise and was not life spinning out of control – but that the cross was necessary. His death was necessary. Not for ruin, but for good. Not to shatter hope, but to give hope. The cross was not the defeat that it appeared but was part of God’s plan of victory over sin, death, and the devil. The plan revealed from the very beginning. The plan that he had been speaking of and accomplishing all through the Old Testament. The plan taught about often to his disciples and was rebuked by Peter for it. The plan and victory sealed and accomplished in his resurrection that very morning.

They listened. Their hearts were burning within them. But they didn’t quite get it. They were thick-headed and slow-hearted, just like we often are. Because when you’re on that road without hope, when you’re in the thick of the struggle, it’s easy to hear the words, but hard to believe.

Our problem is not so much that God doesn’t give us what we hope for as it is that we don’t know the right thing for which to hope. (It’s good to hear that sentence again.)

Hope is not what you expect. Hope is not what you would ever dream. Hope is not a Disney princess movie ending. It is Jesus unpacking the Word of God for you, like he did for those disciples, so your heart may burn within you, warming you up, melting your cold heart, putting you on fire for the Lord.

You find this improbable, unbelievable hope when you dig through Scripture and find the centennial Abraham sitting with his infant son on his lap; Moses standing between two walls of Red Sea water; Joshua walking over the ruined walls of Jericho; David rocking the giant Goliath to sleep; Samson bringing the house down on the Philistines; Daniel petting a pride of purring lions; four men walking in a fiery furnace; and a teenage virgin pregnant with the Son of God.

Hope is the two Emmaus-bound pilgrims reaching out to take a piece of bread only to see candlelight shining through the holes in the stranger’s hands.

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.” And even though he vanished, they were not sad. For they now knew Jesus was not gone. Their faith was no longer in glory, but in the cross. Their faith was no longer downcast because of the corpse in the grave, but it was now joyful because of the empty tomb. They had found Jesus’ promises in his Word. So, they rushed to Jerusalem. No longer confused, but certain. No longer sad, but joyful. No longer struggling, but on the firm foundation. No longer hopeless, but burning with hope.

And we are, too. For the Good Shepherd has come and found each of us lost and wandering sheep, and has invited us here, to his house, a refuge for weary pilgrims. And he stays with us. He is here, opening the Scriptures, so we may hear and believe. Inviting us to his altar where he is both the priest and the sacrifice. Inviting us to stay and eat at his Table, where he is both host and food. Giving you bread that is his body and wine that is his blood. Opening your eyes to see your sin, but even greater that your eyes see your Savior from sin.

So, we come to this place weary, and we leave refreshed. We come scared and depressed, and we leave with our hearts burning with faith. We come without hope, questioning if God really cares and we leave with the hope and assurance that our God is unfettered by time and space, so he comes to sit, dine, teach, and care for us. 

The road to Emmaus is a fascinating story. It’s a road of hope. Jesus wouldn’t waste his time walking with us along this road if there was no hope. We now have a new lease on life. Pretty perceptive, don’t you think? Amen.

Through [Christ] you are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:21) Amen.

Easter Shows up Every Sunday

Josh Koelpin

Sermon based on John 20:19-31 Preached at Water of Life Lutheran Church, Caledonia WI on 4.23.23

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe x that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In the name of Jesus, Peace be with you!

Many of the Easter decorations are packed away already, some of the flowers are fading, the church might not be as full as it was a week ago. The choir isn’t singing a special anthem. The cries of “he is risen, he is risen indeed” are a little quieter than they were. Extended families have gone back to their homes. We continue with our lives and daily routines. The ham dinner is gone. The weeks after Easter is just not, well, Easter. I’m sure I could continue with this somewhat sad list, and I’d probably make you say, “Wow Josh is such a downer this week,” but that is not my point. In fact, my point is the opposite. I actually come to you with good news this morning. News that makes us sing our “Alleluias” with all the joy of a week ago. That news is this: Easter shows up every Sunday. We will focus on that, and what it means for us as Christians to live with the reality of the resurrected Lord Jesus and what He has done for us on our minds. Not just today, but every day.

How do you think the disciples felt as they sat behind those locked doors the first Easter evening? Well, John tells us that they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. They were together, at least 10 of them (Judas and Thomas were not there), behind locked doors. Yes, it is true, the women had told them about what they had seen at the empty tomb. Yes, Peter and John raced to the tomb and the body was no longer there. Yes, the disciples from Emmaus had come and told them that they talked with him on the way, and he opened the Scriptures to them, and they knew it was the Lord. But there the disciples sat. Afraid. And I think if we think about it, it makes sense. It wasn’t just Peter who had denied Jesus, all of them had also denied Jesus and run away from Him. They saw their teacher die at the hands of Roman soldiers. It wasn’t just any death, but death on a cross. A brutal and public execution. And to add to it, now they didn’t know where His body was. They felt like they had no real purpose, and as I mentioned earlier, they were afraid of the leaders of Judaism. It is at this moment that Jesus comes through the locked doors and said to them words of tremendous comfort. “Peace be with you.” As Jesus showed them his hands and side those words must’ve been ringing in their ears. This Jesus they had run away from, came to them, and didn’t come at them with words of rebuke and condemnation as we might expect, but gave them the peace that they desperately craved.

A small point, but perhaps worthy of note. The text says that the disciples were overjoyed. What is the difference between joy and overjoyed? Well, joy is to be filled with happiness, whereas overjoyed is to be filled with so much happiness that it overflows. When someone feels overjoyed, they can’t help but tell people about the joy they are feeling.

And perhaps that feeling of being overjoyed prepared them for what Jesus was going to share with them next. Jesus hit them with information that admittedly was also probably quite terrifying. Jesus told them that he was going to be sending them into the world, just like He had been sent by the Father. Wait what? They may have thought. Now we must go out to the world that hated you and tell them the message about you? They are going to hate us, too. Are you crazy, Jesus? Jesus told them, though, that they wouldn’t be alone. He would send them with the Holy Spirit, and his peace. The peace of the resurrection would be theirs as well. As they would go out and proclaim the forgiveness of sins, the joys of Easter would be with them every step of the way. They would not need to fear. Not even death. Because Jesus, their Savior had risen from the dead and defeated death.

Pretty much the same story you just heard was going to happen the very next Sunday. The disciples were gathered again (in a locked room out of fear again, by the way), and Jesus would do the same thing with Thomas. Thomas doubted that Jesus’ resurrection happened. He said he would not believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes. Jesus came to him, too. Jesus took on his doubt and his fear, too. He came to Thomas and even told him to put his hands into the spots the nail marks had been and to plunge is hand into his side where the spear had been. And he spoke the same words that he spoke to the disciples the week before, “Peace be with you.” The text doesn’t tell us this explicitly, but we can guess that Jesus also told Thomas that he would also be part of the mission to tell people about the forgiveness of sins. Finally, this is the mission of the Christian church. The mission of the Christian church is to go and tell people about what Jesus has done for them and to announce to them the forgiveness of their sins.

This account of Easter eve and the week after Easter, puts a “human face” on Easter. Yes, there is joy, but I must ask a couple of questions: Have you ever felt like the disciples or like Thomas? Do you identify more with them than anyone else in the Easter story? Have you ever felt scared of what being a witness of the Gospel might bring into your life, or even doubted that the resurrection is for you altogether? When we were singing and praising God together on Easter in the church building it seemed easy to proclaim the Risen Savior. But after you left did you huddle behind closed-locked doors like the disciples did on that first Easter eve? What types of security systems have you set up in your life so that you don’t have to talk about the resurrected Savior with others?

·         Perhaps we have a fear of what other people are going to think about us if we share the message of Jesus. And so, we convince ourselves it is better not to at all.

·         Maybe we are afraid that we are going to lose friends because of our confession of faith or cause a disagreement at the lunch table. And we tell ourselves that Jesus would rather have us preserve the peace than say something. So, we don’t say anything at all.

·         Possibly our security system is to say, “I don’t have the talent.” God can’t use me.

·         Maybe our security system is to doubt, like Thomas did.

But the thing about all these security systems that we set up is that they are not secure at all. While they may preserve our self-image from a worldly standpoint, they ultimately fail. More than that they are sinful. And if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that these things don’t make us leave the situations we are in in our lives feeling very good at all. Our sinfulness and the barriers of self-interest that we have established in the end make us feel like Peter and the disciples who denied Jesus.

Perhaps the barriers we put up look a little more like this: you feel like you’ve majorly messed everything up since Easter Sunday a week ago, and your sins sins of this week are weighing you down. Those sins are making you say, “I can’t be a witness of the resurrected Lord.”

Whatever the case may be, Jesus comes to us in the midst our barriers of self-interest and self-preservation, knocks them down, and says, “Peace be with you.” He shows us his hands and his side and says look at my hands and my side I went to the cross and suffered for the forgiveness of your sins. He appears to us resurrected and says look, I am really risen, and I have defeated death so that you will live, too. Share in the joy of my resurrection Jesus says. And he also comes and tells us what that means for us. He tells us that he is sending us. He is sending you and is sending me into the world to forgive sins. He isn’t sending us alone, though. He is sending us with the Holy Spirit to proclaim a message of his peace.

Jesus used the disciples, who were just as human and sinful as we are to spread the message about Him, and to forgive people of their sins. Jesus uses us, too. So go out today joyfully proclaiming Easter. Tell people about the victory Jesus has won for our sins and for their sins. And forgive people. When someone has wronged you, forgive them. You may even use it as a chance to tell them about what Jesus has done for them on the cross. That is something you can do every day.

Easter shows up each Sunday. But for us, living as Christians, we should say, Easter shows up every day. Easter shows up and fills our hearts with faith as we read God’s word, Easter shows up every week as we confess our sins and receive the forgiveness of sins, Easter shows up as we go and be witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, and Easter shows up when we hear Jesus say to us, “Peace be with you.” Amen.

May this peace of God which surpasses all our human wisdom and understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Sermon 4-16-2023

Sermon OSLC                                                                              John 20:19-20                                                                               04-08-2012

Intro:   The Power of Christ's Resurrection Bursts through Obstacles.   Some question the power of Christ's resurrection:  A minister was in Italy, and there he saw the grave of a man who had died centuries before who was an unbeliever and completely against Christianity, but a little afraid of it too. So the man had a huge stone slab put over his grave so he would not have to be raised from the dead in case there is a resurrection from the dead. He had insignias put all over the slab saying, "I do not want to be raised from the dead. I don't believe in it." Evidently, when he was buried, an acorn must have fallen into the grave. So a hundred years later the acorn had grown up through the grave and split that slab. It was now a tall, towering oak tree. The minister looked at it and asked, "If an acorn, which has the power of biological life in it, can split a slab of that magnitude, what can the acorn of God's resurrection power do in a person's life?"

Think of the things you see as immovable slabs in your life—your bitterness, your insecurity, your fears, your self-doubts. Those things can be split and rolled off through the power which was planted in his tomb. When Jesus comes to you as Savior and Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit comes into your life. It's the power of the resurrection—the same thing that raised Jesus from the dead …. Think of the things you see as immovable slabs in your life—your bitterness, your insecurity, your fears, your self-doubts. Those things can be split and rolled off. The more you know him, the more you grow into the power of the resurrection. Because Jesus lives, everything has changed. We look at the cross in a different light. “I know that my redeemer lives,” we sing. “What comfort this sweet sentence gives!” We find comfort, joy, peace, and hope in his empty tomb.

Peace and Life Burst forth from the Grave!

1.  His Wounds Inspire Peace. 

                1.1  The disciples in fear and confusion had abandoned him.  The disciples on the evening of that first Easter did not know Easter joy or peace. They had seen Jesus crucified. With his death, they assumed all their hopes and expectations had also died. When Jesus was first arrested in the garden, they had fled into the night, confused and frightened. As the events unfolded, they watched in shock. Peter, who had boasted so quickly that he would die with Jesus rather than deny him, had in fact denied Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times. Peter and the rest saw the One they spent three years with abused by the soldiers and then led out of Jerusalem, too weak to carry his own cross.

It’s no wonder that they were afraid. First, they were afraid that all they had believed about Jesus was a lie. They had confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. They had signed on to Peter’s confession and agreed. They had been there when the crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” What excitement they must have felt! But they also heard the crowd rant, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” What did all this mean for the promises he had made to Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died? Then Jesus had said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25). But he was dead. Were those just empty words and vain hope in the face of the death of a dear friend?

1.2  Jesus crossed over their doubts. They were also afraid that Jesus could not care for them any longer. If the Jewish leaders had killed Jesus, his disciples were next, they thought. Jesus had protected them even in the garden. When they were all surrounded by the mob, Jesus asked the mob to let his disciples go if all they wanted was him. Now he could not protect them by his words or even by his power. Jesus was gone, and the miracles they had witnessed were also past and gone. Could Jesus still exercise such power to protect them? They were afraid that he did not have the power to protect them from the Jewish leaders, so they were behind locked doors. They were also afraid of the future. What would happen to them? They had left businesses and families behind to follow Jesus, only to see the reason they had gone brutally killed.

Of course, they had heard the reports of his resurrection. The angels had appeared to the women. But the disciples did not believe the women. Even when some of the women said that they had seen Jesus, the disciples dismissed their reports as hysterical hallucinations. When Peter and John went to the tomb that morning, John believed, but fear still was stronger than comfort and hope for Peter and the others. They were confused about what it all meant. Even though they had seen Lazarus come out of his grave, witnessed the youth of Nain sit up as his body was carried toward burial, and heard how the daughter of Jairus had returned to life; the resurrection of Jesus was just too much to believe.

Then Jesus suddenly stood among them. In spite of the locked doors, he was there with them. Jesus left no doubt about who he was. He showed them his hands and side. They saw and touched the wounds Jesus had suffered only three days earlier. But he was alive. Jesus encouraged them to see the cross differently than they had on Good Friday.

Jesus brought peace to them in that locked room. His presence among them was a confirmation that all he had taught them was true. When he had told Mary and Martha that he was the resurrection and the life, it wasn’t just words to make them feel better. Those words were absolutely true! He was the Anointed One, the Christ whom they had come to trust. His message was true and reliable. And he had the power to care for them. They need not fear. He was not dead. His power had not been removed. In fact, it was even greater because he himself had arisen from the dead—no one had ever done that.

1.3  He arrives again this morning with his peace.   The peace he brought was tied to the wounds he had received on the cross. He had suffered for the disciples. He paid for their sins with his suffering and death. He accomplished forgiveness for them and all the world. They were at peace with God because of those wounds. As their hesitant fingers traced the wounds of the nails in his hands, they began to understand that the punishment Jesus had endured brought peace. His suffering was now over. His hands, side, and feet were no longer attached to the cross. He was no longer suffering. It was done, finished, over. “Peace be with you!” he said.

That peace is yours too. His wounds were not just for this select group of people in Palestine long ago. His wounds announce to all that he has completed his mission. We have forgiveness—full and free. Because of what Jesus suffered, once and for all, as the writer to the Hebrews announces, we are declared innocent of sin—justified before God. We have peace with God, the peace promised by the angels at Jesus’ birth and now fully assured by the living hands of Jesus, still marked by the suffering he endured to achieve that peace. Since Jesus was now alive, he could also protect his disciples. Not only were his words true and his mission successfully completed, but Jesus also was there to assure them that he would continue to be with them no matter what the future held.

App:  The Savior’s glorified body still begs the question, “What does Jesus want?”  He wants what no one else can – your sins, the burdens you bear.  His hands and feet prove he already has lifted them away from you. "Jerome, an early church father, had a dream one night in which Jesus visited him.  In the dream, Jerome collected all his money and offered it to Jesus as a gift.  Jesus said, "I don't want your money."  So, Jerome rounded up all his possessions and tried to give them to Jesus.  Jesus responded, "I don't want your possessions."  Jerome then turned to Christ and asked, "What can I give you?  What do you want?"  Jesus simply replied, "Give me your sins.  That's what I came for; I came to take away your sins."  

Who else would make such a request?  Who would want our sins?  Mohammed?  Buddha?  No other religious leader ever made such a request.  Everyone else wants the best of what we have to offer. Only Jesus asks for the worst.  Only Jesus asks us for our sins?  Only Jesus came into the world for this purpose.  As John the Baptist declared in John 1:29, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"  Have you given Jesus what He wants?

2.   His Wounds Incite Life.   

2.1  His coming caused them to “zoom out” and see death as an empty threat.   His wounds brought another blessing for his fearful disciples. Of course, death was a part of their fear. They had come to Jerusalem with Jesus imagining the worst. Thomas had said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (Jn 11:16). When they thought Jesus was dead for good, perhaps they became resigned to their fate—to die like Jesus. They had no hope. The Jewish leaders who it appeared were intent on killing Jesus, obliterating his teachings, would therefore attack the disciples of Jesus too. Even if they escaped the wrath of the Jewish leaders at this point, what hope would they have when death finally caught up to them? Joy/hope were in short supply in that locked room before Jesus came.

Zoom Out! The next time life seems confusing and you feel that you've lost your bearings, ZOOM OUT! That's what I did on Google Maps the other day and it worked like a charm. There I was, staring at a location on the map, a mite confused. So I clicked on "zoom out" and the broader perspective made all the difference. Understanding where you are in relationship to other key landmarks will do that for you. But he did come to them! If they imagined that he was only a phantom or an illusion created by their own wishful thinking, Jesus dispelled that thought. He not only asked them to touch his wounds, he also ate some food that first night with them. Just as they had begun to see the cross in the light of the payment for their sins completed, Jesus asked them to see the cross in the light of everlasting life.

So, the next time you find yourself a bit disoriented in your circumstances, step back and drink in a broader view. Resist the temptation to focus on where you're stuck. Remember the broader context of your life. Think of how God raised his Son on Easter morning.  And realize that in Christ you have been granted an even greater capacity to zoom out. In light of God's promises, you have been given the ability to zoom out until eternity itself comes into view. From this vantage point your earthly concerns are finally placed in their proper perspective. When eternity is your point of reference, your earthly problems become pretty small. From here it becomes easy to see that God has provided you with more for which to be thankful than to regret, more you don't know about than you do, and more to come than has ever been.

2.2  Easter proclaims victory over death in the promise of new life.   His body was the same as it had been at the crucifixion. The wounds were still there. But it was also different. It was glorified. He appeared among them without knocking on the door and waiting for them to open it. He was just there! No one had unlocked the door. Jesus invited them to see his cross and then life and death itself in a different way. Jesus had said, “Because I live you too will live.” Just as he died but then rose again, so would his disciples. Jesus had been dead, but now he was alive. That is what would happen to them too. It was as Jesus had said early in his ministry: “Whoever believes [will] have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). What comfort and peace they had because he was alive! They could face all of life’s challenges, knowing they would live forever. They would be brought back to life with glorified bodies like his and live with him forever in the mansions he prepared for them.

App.    As the disciples were reunited with their Lord and Master, they embraced the deeper, wider life that lay ahead of them.  We too learn to entrust our future to him who holds our life in his hand.  That comfort and peace are yours too. The cross is empty. Jesus endured the pain, suffering, and death, but he did not stay dead. He is the same Jesus who paid the debt your sins deserved. Look at his hands. They move. Look at his feet. He stands among the disciples and walks among them. His hands and feet are not still, quiet, and lifeless. They belong to a risen and glorified Lord. You too will live.

Conclusion:   We shall awake on the resurrection morning, not isolated, but in the company of our dear ones; not like one flower blooming in a lonely Spring, but a myriad of flowers bursting into each other's sight upon a bank together.  The women had helped with the burial of Jesus. Then his hands had been still and lifeless. But no longer. There will come a time for all of us when our bodies lie still and lifeless in a casket and later in a grave. As Jesus moved among the disciples and they touched his living hands, they found the hope of their own resurrection and eternal life. We find it too. Our hands may be still in death, but they will move again. Jesus will call you and me out of our graves. Then our hands will move again. Jesus will call us from our graves and give us glorified bodies like his.

That hope is based on the living Lord. This Easter hope gives us the courage to face each challenge, each tragedy, and each misery of life. We know we will rise from the dead as he did. Only he has the power to offer such hope. When we face the loss of a beloved believer—a child, a spouse, a parent—we turn to the promises of Jesus for comfort. We'll Meet Again! Easter not only proclaims victory over death, it also predicts union after death. Which of these thoughts is the greater I dare not say; but they need not be discriminated between for they both belong to the Christian. We shall awake on the resurrection morning, not isolated, but in the company of our dear ones; not like one flower blooming in a lonely Spring, but a myriad of flowers bursting into each other's sight upon a bank together. Dr. J. R. Miller relates this incident. A father and son had been ship­wrecked. Together they clung to the rigging until the son was washed off. The father was rescued in the morning in an unconscious state. Several hours later he awoke in a fisherman's hut, where he was lying in a soft, warm bed. In agony, he remembered his boy. But as he turned his head he saw his son lying beside him. 

One by one we are being swept away with the billows of time. Some storm will carry the last and stoutest heart of us away. But when we awake beyond the raging of the sea we shall be together again. When our eyes open in the Heavenly morning, nearby us, in the bowers of Paradise, we shall see those "whom we have loved long since, and lost awhile."

His First Steps Led Away from The Tomb- Easter

His first steps led away from the tomb

John 20:1-18 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2So she left and ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she told them, “and we don’t know where they put him!”

3So Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5Bending over, he saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in.

6Then Simon Peter, who was following him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there. 7The cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who arrived at the tomb first, also entered. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.)

10Then the disciples went back to their homes.

11But Mary stood outside facing the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she bent over, looking into the tomb. 12She saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She told them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.”

14After she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus.

15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him.”

16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned and replied in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means, “Teacher”).

17Jesus told her, “Do not continue to cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father—to my God and your God.’”

18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” She also told them the things he said to her.

Surely God is my salvation. I will trust him and will not be afraid, because the Lord, yes the Lord, is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation (Isaiah 12:2). Amen.

Everything was fine when Joshua came to Racine for a visit. Since he was a popular lecturer, he scheduled some speaking engagements at local churches and schools. While he was visiting, he gathered his friends together for a celebration meal at a local restaurant on Thursday evening.

Everything stopped being fine very early Friday morning. Joshua was taken to Ascension Hospital. Everything hurt. His hands. His feet. His head and back. He had trouble breathing. He didn’t eat anything. He could barely drink anything.

The women in Joshua’s life did what women are gifted by God to do. They were there at the foot of his bed. His mother was there. So was his good friend Mary.

It was scary how quickly Joshua’s condition worsened. After only six hours, he was dead.

Joshua’ mother was poor. She couldn’t afford any of the services provided by the funeral home. There was no embalming or funeral. Joshua’s friend, Joe volunteered that Joshua could be laid to rest in his burial plot. So, Joshua’s body was buried late Friday at Graceland Cemetery, only a short walk from Ascension Hospital.

Everything had happened so quickly that Mary did not have any closure. Her grief was overwhelming. So, early Sunday morning, as the sun was coming up, she walked the slow, difficult steps of mourning to Joshua’s grave.

Everything was fine when Jesus came to Jerusalem for a visit. Since he was a popular rabbi, he taught in the temple courtyard on Monday and Tuesday. He gathered his disciples together for a celebratory Passover Meal in the Upper Room on Thursday.

Everything stopped being fine very early Friday morning. Jesus was taken to Golgotha’s hill and crucified on a Roman cross. Everything hurt. His hands. His feet. His head and back. He had trouble breathing. He didn’t eat anything. He could barely drink anything.

The women in Jesus’ life did what women are gifted by God to do. They were there at the foot of the cross. His mother was there. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons were there (Matthew 27:56).

It was scary how quickly Jesus died. Crucifixions can last for days. But after only six hours, Jesus was dead.

Jesus’ mother was poor. She didn’t have money for a family burial plot. So, Jesus’ covert disciple, Joseph of Arimathea, volunteered his grave. There was no time for a proper preparation of the body before burial because of the Sabbath. So, Jesus’ body was quickly wrapped in cloths and laid in Joseph’s tomb late Friday afternoon – only a short walk from Golgotha.

Everything had happened so quickly that Mary Magdalene didn’t have closure. So early Sunday morning, as the sun was coming up, she walked the slow, difficult steps of mourning to Jesus’ grave.

You know how both Mary’s felt – both present day Mary and Mary Magdalene. You’ve been with your sick child at Children’s Hospital. You’ve visited your grandmother at the nursing home. You’ve said goodbye to your father in the hospice home. You’ve held your spouse’s hand when he or she took their last breath.

You know the slow steps you take to go to the room of your dying loved one. You know the heavy, plodding steps you take after your loved one has died. They are steps filled with grief, sadness, dread, fear, and loneliness. No wonder they are so heavy. They are carrying a lot of emotions.

Your loved one may have been taken away from you after a long battle with cancer or a long bout with an illness. Or your loved one could have been ripped from your life by an accident or a sudden attack. Death has removed your loved one from your life. Your family has been torn apart. Your emotions are raw. Your fear of the future is real.

We stand weeping at the closed grave of our loved one. We are looking for something to calm our fears, another hug, one more day. This is why the annual trip to the tomb with Mary Magdalene and the other women every Easter morning is so important for us as Christians.

After his third day resurrection, Jesus took his first steps that led away from the tomb. He marched down to hell and preached to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19). There he made a public spectacle of them (Colossians 2:15), announcing that he was victorious over the devil, the demons, and death itself.

Jesus’ next steps from hell took him back to outside his briefly borrowed tomb. There the angels told the women: “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:5). Later, Jesus himself told the women who were hurrying away from the tomb: “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:10). Easter evening, Jesus told his fearful disciples: “Peace be with you” (John 20:21). And it is fitting that Jesus reminds us repeatedly: “Do not be afraid.” “Peace be with you.”

Whether it’s Mary Magdalene, the women, the disciples, or us, we are often filled with a mixture of fear, powerlessness, and hopelessness. But suddenly we all learn together that our dear Lord is no longer dead. Death held no power over the Son of God, just as he had promised. In his saving power, none of us have any reason to live in hopelessness and fear. 

Mary exclaimed to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” That is our exclamation, too, this Easter. We have no reason to be afraid. With the eyes of faith, we, too, have seen our resurrected Lord! Easter proclaims that there is nothing in ancient times, current times or future times that can rightfully make us afraid – not plagues or pandemics or World Wars or anything else that brings death.

Fear that leads you away from faith in the Lord is one of the most treasured tools in Satan’s toolbelt. But you have no reason to be afraid. God will keep you safe until the day he has set from eternity for you to die. You will not die one moment sooner than that. God did not create you to live in fear.

Jesus promises, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last—the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell” (Revelation 1:17, 18).

Dust and ashes mortals like us like to hide our fears. Honestly acknowledge your own fears, but also rely upon the Easter hope that answers your fears. This Easter message, after all, had its first proclamation in a graveyard that suddenly became a place of hope rather than fear. 

Our lives have never truly been in our own hands. Our lives rest in the nail-marked hands of the crucified and risen Christ. And even though fears still want to spook our hearts until heaven, yet we regularly walk to the open tomb to silence those fears.

Fear is often the result of hopelessness. As Christians, though, hope overcomes fear. Our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope is not in mankind. Our hope is not in the media, medical experts, or government authorities. Our hope is not in family genetics, healthy eating, or plenty of exercise. Our hope is in the God who wondrously created us and still more wondrously restored us to himself in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. Our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His resurrection is the firstfruits of all those who fall asleep in him (1 Corinthians 15:20).

Even in a fallen world where Death rides its pale horse to haunt us and hunt us down, Jesus still patiently reassures us: “Do not be afraid.” Death's back is broken. Satan has been stomped. The gates of Hades have been ripped off their hinges. Christ rides victorious on his white horse (Revelation 6:2). He has conquered and he continues to conquer. “Death is the last enemy to be done away with” (1 Corinthians 15:26), If Death is done, nothing else can win. If Death has been destroyed, then there is nothing else to fear.

Death lies broken and defeated. And now you get to decide whether the rest of your troubles, the worst of your fears, and the greatest of your anxieties are worth your worries. Can the terrors of troubles outweigh trusting in the Almighty God? Can the worries about war overshadow the Lord of Armies? Can the dread of demons live up to their demands? Can the panic of pandemics be greater than Christ walking victoriously out of his grave? Can the anxiety over ailments, the cares over cancer, or the despair over dementia be stronger than the almighty Son of God who slammed shut the prison doors of hell and threw wide open the gates of heaven?

We must all admit that fear often leads us to the dark side – to the devil’s side. That’s why we need to be reminded that we Christians alone have an answer to human fear. That answer is found in a graveyard. It is found at an empty tomb. It is found in a message that calms our fears while simultaneously making us messengers to the fearful hearts of others. “Surely God is my salvation. I will trust him and will not be afraid,” says the prophet Isaiah, “because the Lord, yes the Lord, is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2). “Do not be afraid,” says the angel. “Do not be afraid,” says the risen Lord. “Do not be afraid,” say you and me. “I have seen the Lord” says Mary and all Christians who are witness to Christ’s third day resurrection.

Because Jesus took his first steps from his grave, now we are assured that on the Last Day, Jesus will call out to us to take our first steps away from our grave. If Jesus calls us, be assured that he will also be calling your Christian loved ones out of their graves, too. Then there will be a blessed reunion, just like there was with Mary and Jesus.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! You have no reason to ever be afraid again. All because Jesus’ first steps led away from the tomb. Amen.

Give thanks to the Lord! Proclaim his name. Declare among the peoples what he has done. Sing to the Lord, for he has done amazing things! Let this be known in all the earth (Isaiah 12:4, 5). Amen.

Easter Sermon

Easter Sermon                                                                      John 20:11-18                                                      Caledonia 04-09-2023

He is risen! He is risen indeed! If you’ve ever watched the movie The Passion of the Christ, you’ll understand why I say that it’s

almost too much for me. It leaves me feeling like a washcloth that’s gone through the ringer. By the time I finish watching that entire movie, I can’t really grab hold of the power and the comfort of the very last scene in the film. But that’s where YouTube comes in handy. I can search online for “Passion of Christ closing scene,” and in 0.59 seconds I can find a clip that is 1 minute and 24 seconds long. When I last checked, it had been uploaded 14,097 times. I’ll make sure I share the URL for that clip via social media later today. I’d urge you to watch it.

The scene is dramatic, purposefully understated compared to everything we’ve endured in the film up to that point. The camera places us within Christ’s black tomb and slowly pans toward the massive stone that closes the entrance. That stone is grinding its way up and back in its channel. You see a finger of the bright sun of that first Easter morning piercing the blackness of the tomb. All the while, the camera continues its slow pan, and the grinding of the massive stone continues until our gaze is focused on the slab where our Savior’s lifeless body had been laid. But the body is gone! The linen wrappings slowly collapse! Captivating music is now building. The camera pans a bit further. And then we see his face—no longer bloodied and bruised and battered but whole again! New and fresh again. Jesus, the risen Lord!

He sits for a moment, his eyes closed as if drinking in the warmth of the sun he once set in the sky. Then he opens his eyes and closes them again—as if pondering for a moment everything that had been accomplished. The music builds. The beat of drums is added. Voices—as if from a choir of angels—are laid over the top of the music score. Then our Lord stands, and we see the gaping hole left by a crude Roman spike in our Savior’s hand. He takes one step forward, and the movie comes to a close. Powerful! Memorable! But the record of Scripture is even better. Jesus’ work to save us was done, but now was the time to announce his victory by appearing to those who still thought him to be dead. So his first steps led . . .

His First Steps Led Beyond His Tomb

1. To Mary, who didn’t seem to notice two angels.

If merely watching the movie The Passion of the Christ is enough to leave you and me feeling exhausted and emotionally drained, imagine what it was like for Jesus’ first disciples who actually lived through the nightmare of Good Friday! Was that day even more horrific for the women, like Mary Magdalene, who followed Jesus? After all, the gospel writer John makes sure we know that “Jesus’

mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene were standing near the cross” (John 19:25). What was that like? A nightmare unfolding? If anything could cause a post-traumatic stress disorder, I’m thinking that might do it!

These women who loved their Lord so much were also the first to visit his tomb on Easter morning. They carried “the spices they had prepared” (Luke 24:1). They came to pay their final respects to their dead teacher. As they drew closer to the tomb, they worried about how they would move that massive stone out of the way. But there were also other concerns, weren’t there? How were they going to talk their way past the Roman guards and break the seal Pilate had placed on the tomb? I don’t know.

They didn’t know! They were still in shock! And that certainly included Mary Magdalene, who went to the tomb at the crack of dawn. The first time Mary arrived there, she saw “that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she left and ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,’ she told them, ‘and we don’t know where they put him!’ ” (John 20:1,2). After sharing this report, Mary followed Peter and John back to the tomb. Once those two arrived, they went inside and checked everything out. Yes, the tomb was empty. Yes, Jesus’ body was gone. So back home they went. Why stay?

There was nothing else to do there. John even adds this unflattering editorial comment to his record: “(They still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead)” (John 20:9). At times, can we also be a little slow in grasping the height, depth, length, power, and certainty of all our Savior’s promises? Perhaps especially at a challenging time like now? “But Mary stood outside facing the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she bent over, looking into the tomb. She saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ” (John 20:11-13). Because her heart was broken! Because she was in shock! She couldn’t see what was right in front of her: “two angels in white clothes.” Were there halos around their heads? Were there harps playing in the background? Who knows? Mary wouldn’t have noticed! All she could think of was this: “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him” (John 20:13b). She was stuck in the nightmare of Good Friday. Christ’s body hanging on the center cross, Christ’s lifeless body later laying in the new tomb Joseph of Arimathea had cut into the rock—those were the images seared into her heart and mind

(Matthew 27:55,56,61)!

That’s why she was weeping, sobbing. The kind of grief that wells up from deep inside you and comes crashing out like breaker waves, and you can’t hold it back. As far as Mary knew, her master was dead. And along with him died all those promises, all those hopes, and all those dreams she had tucked away in her heart from all those times she had heard him “preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God” as she and some other women followed Jesus “traveling from one town and village to another” (Luke 8:1).

Any of us who has experienced trauma may understand at least a little of what Mary was going through that first Easter morning. It’s why she seemed oblivious to the angels, frozen to the spot, struggling to think through her next move. But our Savior is a caring Savior who understands each one of us better than we ourselves do! He knew exactly what Mary needed. That’s why his first steps led outside his tomb.

2. To Mary, who thought Jesus was a gardener.

The apostle John’s account is poignant and personal. It’s amazing the little details that he includes here, amazing because John penned this record close to 60 years after Jesus’ resurrection, somewhere around a.d. 90. I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. How could John, the “Elder” (2 John 1), remember? Because the Holy Spirit, by inspiration, made every detail sharp and clear in John’s mind, heart, and soul.

“After she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, ‘Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him’ ” (John 20:14,15).

At this point, theologians, who sometimes act as if they have way too much time on their hands, come up with all kinds of reasons why Mary didn’t recognize Jesus: (1) Our Savior kept her from recognizing him at first. Could be; he’s God. He can do whatever he wants. (2) Mary’s eyes were blurred, so she didn’t recognize Jesus. Well, duh! She was weeping, sobbing. This was gut-wrenching sorrow; of course her eyes were blurred! (3) Jesus may have looked different than he did before his resurrection. That one might have some merit. On Easter Sunday afternoon, Cleopas and his companion, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, didn’t recognize Jesus when he joined them and walked along the road with them. Of course, there’s this too: Jesus would also be the very last person they’d expect to see because of the nightmare of Good Friday.

So I guess if seeing “two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying” (John 20:12) doesn’t make you stop and go, “Say what?” then you aren’t going to recognize Jesus, who rescued you from the hell on earth of being possessed by seven demons (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9)! You won’t recognize the soothing voice of the teacher whom you followed for three years (Luke 8:2,3). You won’t recognize the Lord who only a few weeks earlier had told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish” (John 11:25,26). You won’t recognize the Lord of life who stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and “shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, ‘Loose him and let him go’ ” (John 11:43,44).

How can you recognize the living Lord when all you can remember are the horrors you witnessed on Golgotha’s hill, when you stood beside “Jesus’ mother, his mother’s sister, [and] Mary the wife of Clopas” (John 19:25)? You can’t! Not when you’re doubled over weeping, not when you are stuck in Good Friday.

Do you and I ever get stuck in the hopelessness of Good Friday? Stuck grieving over the spouse, parent, or child the Lord took home and maybe we still feel it was far too soon? Stuck worrying about how we’re going to pay our bills now that we’re out of a job because our company downsized? And what are we going to do if we get the coronavirus? And what about our retirement savings? And what’s going to happen to our business? How will our congregation and our ministry move forward during these uncertain times?

There are so many concerns and so many fears that threaten to keep you and me mired in the bleakness of Good Friday! But there is only one way to roll back our massive stones of fear, sorrow, worry, and weeping! Only Easter can do that! The risen Savior, who knew exactly what Mary needed that first Easter Sunday, knows exactly what we need this Easter Sunday! We need to rivet our attention on Jesus. We need to see how his first steps led outside his tomb!

3. To Mary, who witnessed to us all, “I have seen the Lord!”

Just one word was all it took for Jesus to lift the fog, the fear, and the darkness from Mary’s heart and mind. Just one word to free her feet that had been frozen to the ground just outside our Savior’s tomb. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and replied in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, ‘Teacher’). Jesus told her, ‘Do not continue to cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father—to my God and your God.” ’ Mary

Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ She also told them the things he said to her” (John 20:16-18). The King of kings and the Lord of lords who had finished his work to pay in full for the sins of the human race; the one who had chained Satan and his minions in the dungeons of hell and had already descended there to declare his eternal triumph (Colossians 2:15); the one whom the Father would exalt and give “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee

will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11); that risen and glorious Christ who is our Good Shepherd. He cares about us. And he knows all of his sheep, every last one of us, by name (John 10:14).

So Jesus simply said, “Mary.” And the darkness of Good Friday began to be pierced by the sun that is Easter. “Rabboni!” (Teacher!) Mary replied. I suspect her tears continued—that’s the way human emotions work; you can’t just turn them off like a faucet—but now they became tears of surprise. Of wonder! Of relief that began to sweep through Mary in waves. So she hugged her Lord! She held him tight! This was clinging. She didn’t want to ever let him go again!

But that wouldn’t work. Jesus had other places to go, other people to see, more names, like Thomas, for example, to speak. For our Savior intended to have hundreds of witnesses ready to swear to us in the pages of Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:1-8), “I have seen the Lord!” His first steps led outside his tomb, and Jesus made sure he met Mary, because he knew she needed him. Then our Lord sent Mary to his “brothers” to share the Easter news with them, because he knew they needed him. And through the pages of Scripture, Mary and so many others stand together, shoulder to shoulder, shouting to us as one: “We have seen the Lord!”

There’s Peter with his hand in the Bible: “To be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the powerful appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). There’s John, an old man who could never forget: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed and our hands have touched regarding the Word of Life—the life appeared, and we have seen it. We testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:1-3).

Together the witnesses shout to us, “Easter is real! The Lord’s gracious forgiveness of sins is real!” Jesus made that crystal clear when he sent Mary with a message for his “brothers.” Even that greeting was pure grace for those who had scattered like scared rabbits into the night outside Gethsemane only days before. There is the same pure grace for us too who sometimes get stuck in our Good Friday nightmares. Because, you see, the writer to the Hebrews assures us that the risen Lord is not ashamed to call us his “brothers” either (Hebrews 2:10-15).

That is why he came. That’s why he took every one of his final steps to the center cross on Calvary. And that’s why his first steps led outside his tomb! Amen.

 Dan Wilkens… story? Resurrection will take away the hurt, it already does, but tomorrow (or then) it will be gone forever. That’s Jesus and his loving plan for us is worth knowing and holding sacred every single day.